Cangandala National Park | |
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Coordinates | 9°48′S16°45′E / 9.8°S 16.75°E Coordinates: 9°48′S16°45′E / 9.8°S 16.75°E |
Area | 600 km² |
Established | 1963 |
Cangandala National Park is a national park in Malanje Province, Angola. It is situated between the Cuije river and 2 unnamed territories of the Cuanza, with the towns of Culamagia and Techongolola on the edges of the park. It is the smallest national park in Angola.
The park was created in 1963 while Angola was a territory under Portuguese rule. It was declared a national park on 25 June 1970. Cangandala was founded to protect the Giant Sable Antelope which were discovered in 1963.
The park, which covers an area of 600 km2 (230 sq mi), consists of undulating sandlime hills with lower-lying drainage lines. The area receives about 1,350 mm (53 in) rainfall per year with an average temperature of 21.5 °C (71 °F). No perennial rivers occur and drainage takes place via grass covered waterlanes. A mosaic of open miombo bushveld and savanna occur. Brachystegia-bushveld are found on the water partitions and open grasslands in the lower-lying drainage lanes.
The red-lipped herald is one of the commonest snakes in the park.
Forest vegetation is dominated by Brachystegia and Julbernardia , together with other trees in places ( Piliostigma , Burkea , Monotes , Strychnos , Sterculia and Dombeya ). [1]
At 824,292 km2 (318,261 sq mi), Namibia is the world's thirty-fourth largest country. After Mongolia, Namibia is the second least densely populated country in the world. Namibia got its name from the Namib desert that stretches along the coast of the Atlantic. It is also known for its wildlife.
South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than 2,850 kilometres from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although much of the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography. The total land area is 1,220,813 km2 (471,359 sq mi). It has the 23rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of 1,535,538 km2 (592,875 sq mi).
The Zambezi River is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers 1,390,000 km2 (540,000 sq mi), slightly less than half of the Nile's. The 2,574-kilometre-long (1,599 mi) river rises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-eastern border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses the country to empty into the Indian Ocean.
Malanje is a province of Angola. It has an area of 97,602 km² and a 2014 census population of 986,363. Malanje is the provincial capital.
The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The Eastern Highlands extend north and south for about 300 kilometres (190 mi) through Zimbabwe's Manicaland Province and Mozambique's Manica Province.
Kafue National Park is the largest national park in Zambia, covering an area of about 22,400 km2. It is one of the largest parks in Africa and is home to 152 different species of mammals.
The oribi is a small antelope found in eastern, southern and western Africa. The sole member of its genus, it was described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1783. While this is the only member in the genus Ourebia, eight subspecies are identified. The oribi reaches nearly 50–67 centimetres (20–26 in) at the shoulder and weighs 12–22 kilograms (26–49 lb). It possesses a slightly raised back, and long neck and limbs. The glossy, yellowish to rufous brown coat contrasts with the white chin, throat, underparts and rump. Only males possess horns; the thin, straight horns, 8–18 centimetres (3.1–7.1 in) long, are smooth at the tips and ringed at the base.
Augrabies Falls National Park is a national park located around the Augrabies Falls, about 120 km west of Upington in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It was established in 1966.
The wildlife of Zimbabwe occurs foremost in remote or rugged terrain, in national parks and private wildlife ranches, in miombo woodlands and thorny acacia or kopje. The prominent wild fauna includes African buffalo, African bush elephant, black rhinoceros, southern giraffe, African leopard, lion, plains zebra, and several antelope species.
Hyperolius vilhenai is a species of frog in the family Hyperoliidae. It is only known from its type locality, Cuílo, along the Luita River in northern Angola, although it is likely to occur in adjacent Democratic Republic of the Congo. Additional specimens from the Cangandala National Park have been provisionally assigned to this species. The specific name vilhenai honours Ernesto Jardim de Vilhena, a Portuguese naval officer, politician, and businessman. Common names Luita River reed frog and Vilhena's reed frog have been proposed for this frog.
The Angolan talapoin, also known as the southern talapoin, is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. Talapoins are the smallest species of Old-World monkeys.
The biomes and ecoregions in the ecology of Zambia are described, listed and mapped here, following the World Wildlife Fund's classification scheme for terrestrial ecoregions, and the WWF freshwater ecoregion classification for rivers, lakes and wetlands. Zambia is in the Zambezian region of the Afrotropical biogeographic realm. Three terrestrial biomes are well represented in the country . The distribution of the biomes and ecoregions is governed mainly by the physical environment, especially climate.
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Angolan miombo woodlands cover most of central Angola and extend into the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are part of the larger miombo ecosystem that covers much of eastern and southern Africa.
The Zambezian dry evergreen forest, also known as the Zambezian Cryptosepalum dry forest, is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of Southern Africa. It consists of several areas of thick forest in western Zambia and adjacent Angola. It is one of the largest areas of tropical evergreen forest outside the equatorial zone.
The Chimanimani Mountains are a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The mountains are in the southern portion of the Eastern Highlands, or Manica Highlands, a belt of highlands that extend north and south along the international border, between the Zambezi and Save rivers.
The Angola Basin is located along the West African South Atlantic Margin which extends from Cameroon to Angola. It is characterized as a passive margin that began spreading in the south and then continued upwards throughout the basin. This basin formed during the initial breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea during the early Cretaceous, creating the Atlantic Ocean and causing the formation of the Angola, Cape, and Argentine basins. It is often separated into two units: the Lower Congo Basin, which lies in the northern region and the Kwanza Basin which is in the southern part of the Angola margin. The Angola Basin is famous for its "Aptian Salt Basins," a thick layer of evaporites that has influenced topography of the basin since its deposition and acts as an important petroleum reservoir.
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The Southern miombo woodlands is a tropical grasslands and woodlands ecoregion extending across portions of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.